Rainbows over Oxford

We couldn't resist one final posting from Oxford of a magnificent double rainbow in the sky last night. We took these photos from the landing outside our apartment.

Farewell to Oxford

Our bags are packed and we are waiting for the taxi to help us take our luggage over to the University. We are storing the bulk of our luggage in the lab for the next 8 days while we head to Scotland and Northern England. We'll just have overnight bags and our computers for the final leg of our trip.


Yesterday we ran errands (returned library books!) and picked up last minute souvenirs, ending our afternoon at the Turf Tavern, where the Hodgkin lab members met us for a farewell pint. Philip and Jonathan entertained us with stories from the worm research community over the years-- since both of them have been working in the field since the mid-70's...

Mocha break

Our train for Edinburgh leaves at 7:30am tomorrow morning-- a 6-1/2 hour trip by rail. We'll be staying with our friends Carol and Thomas Lenagan up there for 4 nights, before returning to northern England for several nights, then flying home on August 21st.

We hope to post blog entries while on the road, but as I learned on our trip to Ireland last week-- internet access is not always easy to find.

More soon,
Deb

Isis Tavern

The sun decided to make an appearance in Oxford yesterday-- our last Sunday in Oxford. We enjoyed one last service at Magdalen Road Church, saying goodbye to some folks who had befriended us. We neglected to mention that Andy accompanied Philip there last Sunday, when an American couple said their goodbyes to the church after having spent 3 years here. They had worked with international students while the husband was working on a PhD. Philip and Andy went over to talk with them afterwards and it turned out they had worked with Andy's Calvin College roommate Nathaniel 2 years ago when he attended Oxford during a semester abroad... it is a small world!

We took a little time to walk along the Thames to the Isis Tavern for Sunday lunch one last time. It's hard to believe our time here in coming to a close.

Isis Tavern along Thames
(only accessible by boat, bicycle, or on foot)

Narrowboat out for a Sunday ride

--Deb

Shakespeare at the Castle

With the reunion of the blogging duo, we can go back and fill in the remainder of Phil and Andy’s time in Oxford, while Deb was in Ireland (Thanks to Andy for posting some blogs by logging on as Deb.)

After the London in a Day tour on Monday, Tuesday was as rainy as it has been here all summer, other than the infamous Blenheim downpour. We managed to make it to the Ashmolean Museum and to find a nearby street where Tolkien lived, but mostly we found shelter from the rain. This made us nervous because we had theatre tickets for that evening—an outdoor performance of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing—and we did not want it to be rescheduled.


The play was at Oxford Castle. We have not written before about the castle, mostly because there is not much to say. It is a small castle, recently restored, but of little historical significance. The play was in its open courtyard. We arrived early and waited (in the coffee shop, of course) as the rain came down in buckets. Finally, they announced that the play would go on, with a brief delay to mop the stage. The rain stopped, or at least slowed to a mist, and about 100 people including us enjoyed a great performance in a fantastic setting. We were in the cheap seats, but still less than 40 feet from the stage and elevated enough to see over the umbrellas in the front row. The play is a comedy which, for Shakespeare, means broad and sometimes bawdy. It had all the elements of classic slapstick, with people hiding in bushes, tripping over things, getting water dumped on them, mangling the language, and so on. (It did include the unintended comedic suspense when an actor was nearly unable to strike a match because of the rain.) We were waiting for Moe, Larry and Curly to make an appearance. Great performance, great setting, and the rain subsided long enough to let us enjoy it.

With nicer weather on Wednesday, we visited the Botanical Gardens and squeezed in visits to several more colleges.

Andy wearing his coffee t-shirt standing
next to the coffee tree at the Botanical Garden
(double-click picture to read caption on his shirt)

We also had a classic pub evening, when we went for a pint at “our local”, a pub called the Fir Tree at the end of our road. (Contrary to what you may think, we don’t go to the pub that often.) The Fir Tree was celebrating the opening of a new and nice outdoor patio, and in the course of events, we ended up in a spirited discussion of classic rock music (and other things) with some other patrons. This discussion included the profound insight that, “ah, there will always be nutters”. (A “nutter” is what we would call a nut.) Andy left on Thursday, having gotten the full Oxford experience and a new catchphrase.
--Philip

Irish postscript

It's a rainy, windy Saturday here in Oxford-- so we are hunkered down in the apartment watching the Olympics on the BBC. I (Deb) am doing laundry and Philip is poring over the proofs to his textbook. He only just received them yesterday after waiting nearly 3 weeks for them to return from the typesetter-- and he must have it all corrected by August 29.

I returned from London yesterday after seeing everyone off to their respective flights home to the U.S. Jill, Shannon, and Dad left for Minneapolis directly from Dublin yesterday and then Andy met Alison and I at Heathrow for their own flights back to Raleigh and Seattle. It has been a whirlwind the last 10 days with everyone coming and going, but we all have great memories to take with us.

I thought I would add a few final favorite photos from our Ireland trip. There are so many good ones it was hard to choose which ones to post!

Alison, Dad, Shannon, Jill
on streets of Dublin

Jill, Dad, and Deb
St. Stephen's Green, Dublin

Deb and Alison
Galway Bay

Our favorite photo of Dad--
taken by Alison-- in a Dublin coffee shop
while waiting out a rain squall

There are no elephants in Piccadilly Circus

… but there are lions at Trafalgar Square. That is one of the conclusions that Andy and Phil drew after a whirlwind tour of London on Monday. We used a combination of the hop-on, hop-off bus, an all-day pass on the Underground, a boat cruise on the Thames, and speed-walking in honor the upcoming Olympics to see a lot of the major attractions in one day. As required by the British Tourism bureau, we have lots of pictures of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and the Tower Bridge. We also saw Buckingham Palace, St James Park, the Tower of London, St Paul’s Cathedral, and lots more. A picture is worth 1,000 words? Here you go.

A view from St. James park across from Buckingham Palace.

We also made a tour of the Churchill Museum and the War Rooms. The War Rooms were the underground command center of Great Britain during WWII, with the Churchill Museum immediately adjoining it. The Rooms were left in place when the war ended, and were re-opened about 25 years ago with many of the original maps, memos, furniture, signs etc still there. They even uncovered the secret sugar stash that one officer had hidden in his desk. These have been recreated as a fascinating museum of Great Britain during the bombings and the blitz. Being underground, it was hard to take pictures, but here is one that came out OK. Definitely worth including on your next visit to London.

Wax figures in the War rooms where Winston Churchill and his staff made all of the important decisions of WWII

And, as we all know from hearing coaching clichés, there is no I in team. But there is one in London.

Galway Graveyards

Galway greetings!

We're back in our hotels' pub tonight here in western Ireland for today's blog. It's very lively here this evening, with the floor filled with some Irish folk dancers. They have live musicians as well, playing accordian, flute, and violin. We considered tying Dad to the table leg so he doesn't attempt to join in. (Actually, he doesn't know the steps, but it probably wouldn't stop him...)

We had a little less rain here today-- but we did have some misty rain off and on. We started out our day in the two cemeteries located in Galway City, looking for Dad's great-grandparents Burns' graves. We were lucky to run into the caretakers at both places who helped us in our search. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in our quest, but we did get to see some interesting things along the way, and meet some true Irish characters (the caretakers).

Searching for Burnses

After the cemetary tour, we visited the Galway city museum and went shopping. The afternoon was spent wandering the streets of Galway, taking in the sights. Luckily, the torrential rain storm held off until after we returned to the hotel!

Galway Bay (courtesy of Alison)

Tomorrow it's back on the train to Dublin, then a bus to the airport. At the airport, we'll say goodbye to Jill, Shannon, and Grandpa Reid, as they don't fly out until Friday. We fly back to Heathrow on Thursday night, meet up with Andy in London, spend the night near the airport, and then Andy and Alison each fly home on Friday, while I (Deb) take the bus back to Oxford. The next two days are a whirlwind of traveling!